While Andy Rubin’s startup Essential took a lot of heat for its front-facing camera cutout, Apple is seeing quite a lot of backlash surrounding the much larger cutout on the iPhone X. Now, thanks to the work of a developer, Android users can “embrace the notch.”
The public library continues to be a wonderful resource, with many adapting to this day and age with various digital resources. As such, many offer ebooks in addition to their traditional counterparts. Google is now helping surface these online versions by showing ebooks that are available to borrow from your library.
In Android Oreo, highlighting an address, email, or phone number will pop up a suggestion bar to open the appropriate corresponding app on your device. This feature uses machine learning and of course requires an OS update, but in the meantime Gmail and Inbox are being updated with a similar time-saving feature.
Google never really stops testing changes to the Google Play Store, and it appears yet another one is underway. First spotted by some users on Reddit, Google seems to be testing replacing app ratings with the download sizes of those apps in search results.
This June, Google News on the web received a big Material redesign that simplified navigation and offered more perspectives, especially from local sources. The site is now adding a new feature that builds on the latter improvement: Community Updates.
The possibilities with virtual reality are endless, but even since the days of Google Cardboard, Google Earth has been one of the highlights for newcomers to the VR platform. Yesterday, Google announced that its Google Earth VR app is being updated to support Street View images.
Actions on Google and Assistant apps launched at I/O in the U.S. and most recently in Australia and the U.K. With more developers now working on apps for the platform, Google has added a search feature to more easily look through the Assistant directory.
Autoplaying video or audio on the web can be convenient at times and very frustrating at others. To improve the experience, upcoming versions of Google Chrome will make “autoplay more consistent with user expectations” and give more controls for audio.
Earlier today, Andy Rubin and several executives from Essential hosted an AMA on Reddit to primarily discuss the Essential Phone. Notable highlights from the session include when the Android Oreo update is coming, as well as when the phone will be supported on Verizon, as well as European availability.
Maps is one of Google’s many services that seems to get new little updates all the time. Users have been able to add photos of locations on Maps for a while now, but Google is now taking things to the next level by allowing for videos to be uploaded as well.
Late last month, YouTube TV launched in 12 more markets around the United States. That brought the $35 per month cord cutting service to 41 cites, a fast ramp up since its late February launch. Today, the cable competitor is launching in eight more cities.
India, and the surrounding Southeast Asia region, is a special area of focus for Google given the potential for the “next billion users” originating there. As such, Google has created a number of country-specific apps and services, with the latest being a mobile payment service for India.
Back in June, Google for the first time opened its Material Design Awards to self-nomination. In its third year, Google’s goal is to award apps on Android, iOS, and web that best follow its design principles. Google has announced 2017’s four winners, along with a new trophy design.
I absolutely love gaming on my Nintendo Switch, but I’ll be the first to admit Nintendo’s solutions for anything that involve online connectivity is absolutely terrible. That’s especially true with voice chat, but the company is making that a little better with its most recent app update.
Back in June, the Wall Street Journal shared that Google traffic to its sites fell after ending the “first click free” practice of offering full access to articles behind a paywall. The program has always been a source of consternation for publishers and Google is finally ending the practice.
Nearly a month after Allo for web finally launched, the client is getting a sizable update that adds a number of expressive features found on the mobile apps. Users can now search for GIFs, stickers, and emoji, while Whisper/Shout also makes its way online.
Last month it was discovered that with the release of Android 8.0 Oreo, users would be able to theme the operating system’s UI without the need to root their handsets. With the use of the Substratum theming engine, users can use Android’s Overlay Manager Service (OMS) to change up the look of almost every aspect of the OS. Here’s a quick look at how to do this…
A few days ago a thread popped up on Reddit regarding app icons, specifically Android Oreo’s ability to put a custom mask on all icons which, in some cases, can result in an adaptive icon that fits the shape it’s given. It’s a cool idea, but it relies on developer support, and Google isn’t doing a great job of setting an example. Now, the lead of Allo and Duo has said they’re taking steps to improve that.
For whatever reason, it seems like Google is having some trouble getting things right with the Oreo OTAs. Some models are delayed, others saw issues installing right off the bat, and now an OTA is popping up on some devices that says it will “update” to 7.1.2…
If you’ve ever sent a WhatsApp reply to the wrong thread, sharing your pet-name for your partner with a business colleague, or you’ve engaged in a spot of drunk-messaging, it looks like you’ll soon have the opportunity to recall the message either before or after it is read …
Over the past year, Google has expanded the number of devices that its Safe Browsing protections can work on. As a result, the company today announced that its service for presenting warnings before nefarious links now works on more than three billion devices worldwide.
Over the years, Chrome has removed digital certificates from Authorities that it does not trust to guarantee security. Google today announced finalized plans to remove trust from certifications signed by Symantec due to security lapses that jeopardize the web’s system for identifying websites.
Google’s Allo and Duo services aren’t exactly the most popular communication apps out there today, but they certainly can come in handy. Google has slowly been taking steps to improve the integration of these two services into its various apps and Android itself, and now an update to Google’s dialer app reveals that the company has further plans for bringing Duo into the fold.
Twitter’s character limit of 140 characters still gives the social network a unique advantage over its competitors, but sometimes, you need to send out multiple tweets in rapid succession to truly get your point across. Thankfully, it looks like Twitter is testing a feature in its Android app that makes doing this a whole lot easier.
